The Kitchen: all things delicious and disastrous

Cheesecake and Ice Cream are the two things I could always adore in just about any flavor. I think if I had a way to have an Ice cream cheesecake I would just die.

Points for creativity?

Some creative ideas are best being taken out the back and getting shot, though.

Take Masterchef: a couple of weeks ago, somebody tried to serve up an avocado "cheese"cake.

Now, I can see how, theoretically, this makes sense. High fat, high protein, a fruit... But, really? Really?! Sugar and avo were never meant to meet like that (somebody messed up the lime and went overboard with the avo). When Greg "Mr Puddings" Wallace cannot bear to go beyond two mouthfuls, you've seriously created a mare of a cheesecake. xP

edited 20th Mar '15 12:42:43 AM by Euodiachloris

Nope. No points for creativity, even. Points off for cheapness. The chili didn't even have much meat in it. Barstids.

Meatless chili is a sadistic, blasphemous thing.

A creative chilli that works? Pork mince. With a dash of cocoa powder in with. Nummy.

I still like my recipe, with coffee, chorizo, black pudding, and beer. In addition to the beef, obviously.

Don't get me wrong, good chili is a thing of beauty and wonder (and heartburn, but, hey, small enough price). This was not good chili. And it was in place of the taco meat, not as well as.

For dinner tonight in honor of the start of grilling season: brats cooked over charcoal, washed down with a tart plum saison from a new player in the Atlanta craft beer scene.

//Tart plum saison: surprisingly good idea

Mixed baby spring greens salad with bleu cheese crumbles and dressed with egg salad rather than salad dressing and a crab cake. Tasty, but I'd forgotten how filling crabcakes are. I cooked two and only ate one. I guess the other one get rewarmed tomorrow and becomes a crabcake slider on a whole wheat roll.

Oh, awesome! I just hooked up with a local source for eggs at $5.00 for a flat of 30. By my math, that's sixteen cents an egg. Size won't be as uniform, but I can live with that.

edited 28th Mar '15 10:42:31 AM by Madrugada

My new favourite thing: Reubens.

I am offically hyped. I have a dear friend coming into town this weekend and he has invited me and the family over for a cookout. As tradition, I am making him an assortment of goodies to take back with him. I adore this because he's honest enough to tell me if something tastes like crap so it's always fun to try new things.

My last new idea was mint brownies. He ate almost a pound of brownies in less than a day. So that was a success. He wants those again, and my fudge, but I am also curious to try my hand at truffles.

I've never made something so fancy before, though I have made cake balls so at least I have the pans for it. I hope that it turns out fluffy. Looks will be nice, but the chocolate is more important. I'm also going to be using a lot of nuetella.

I don't really use recipes anymore, so much as size up what's in my fridge and cobble together a meal based on the effort I want to expend. It's fun not having any sort of structure to my diet besides "Must be healthier than a quarter pound of chocolate and maybe tea."

Fucking Delicious Combinations I Discovered:

• White rice with meatballs, marinara, and parmesan (when I had sauce but no pasta)
• Pasta with raw tomato, olive oil, pepper, and salt (when I had pasta but no sauce... and only one tomato)
• Celery sticks spread with avocado and pesto
• Kale sauteed in olive oil, garlic, and pepper, with some pitted olives
• Diced, cooked potatoes with butter and salt
• One pound of turkey, onions, garlic, a lot of celery, and thyme, boiled with just enough water to cover, till the celery was indeterminate mush.

Lera it's an awesome feeling to begin to be able to level up your own cooking and independently make yummy food with whatever you have on hand.

Next step: build a pantry of staples, so that "What I have on hand" becomes "whatI feel like making".

I'd love to build up my staples, but my kitchen is currently shared with 3 other people and I'm moving in a month so I can't stockpile as much as I'd like.

Totally understood. it's a good goal to have though, when you've got the space for it :)

What am I making for dinner tonight?

Ok, kitchen-cooky people, before I irrevocably commit to this, I want to run it by y'all: I'm already committed to making a peach cobbler for a friend's birthday party on Saturday, to go with gumbo, jambalaya and red beans and rice.

I'm thinking to spice the peaches with something more than the sugar and a touch of cinnamon that my recipe calls for — something more like I'd do for apples — brown sugar instead of white, cinnamon, a dash of cardamom, nutmeg, and a pinch of cayenne. Not enough to make it spicy, but enough to warm it up a bit.

Thoughts on that combination? suggestions for another one?

I might forgo the nutmeg and cayenne in favour of allspice, myself (I think both perhaps a little too much for them). But, the rest sounds eminently happy to hang with peaches.

Random double post of weird got deleted.

edited 30th Apr '15 5:56:07 PM by Euodiachloris

Since I couldn't be at home for Easter, my aunt's family put away a bag of ham in the freezer for me, and they gave it to me today.

Ham that's been frozen for a month is not nearly as delicious as same-day leftover ham. Shock. Surprise. Alarums.

dice it up and stick it in a stew.

Mmmm. Ham and succotash stew is delicious. Also goes well in Brunswick stew. Also worth considering: scalloped potatoes with ham bits in it.

Guilty pleasures: woke up peckish. First pickled beetroot sandwich of the year. With a dab of horseradish.

Soul food.

Beetroots are what us 'Mericans call 'beets' right? And pickled would be sweet? Or sour? Anything else besides the beets, the bread and the horseradish?

edited 4th May '15 9:32:12 PM by blackcat

Um. Yeah about the beets. About the pickled, though... it's a case of sweet and sour? Here's a typical DIY recipe. Not sure how you'd classify that. <_<

One side of the sandwich buttered and horseradish sauced, the other left bare to soak up as much dribble as possible. Nothing else needed. I guess you could add pepper to taste, but I don't see why. Cream cheese can always be used instead of butter. Maybe cottage cheese, if you're desperate for protein.

But, for me: the beetroot is the whole point, really. No matter how messy.